Arguments For Prison Reform

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Prison Reform
Many believe that prison reform will not benefit the criminal justice system in this country. Prison reform is the process in which the prison system tries to reduce the amount of prisoners in prisons across the country. There is a very high number of prisoners locked up. The argument is that people should not be put into prison for non-violent; crimes that is why the prison system is overcrowded. People who are for prison reform think that the answer lies within eliminating harsh sentencing laws. Those who are against prison reform believe that harsh sentencing laws are put into place to promote the safety of the community and to reduce many other problems. The United State’s crime rate is actually extremely low and those who …show more content…
Mandatory minimum sentencing laws are a strict set of laws that are enforced through the justice system. They set a minimum punishment for crimes where the judge cannot lower the sentence length for any reason. "Policy makers at the state and federal levels have created a stricter criminal justice system in the past three decades…such as the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984” (Kearney et al 9). People who are for prison reform believe that these laws are the reason the prison system is overcrowded and has issues. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws were put into place to get the criminal justice system tough on crime. These laws are strict to the offender but they help eliminate sentence disparity. Meaning they ensure that each individual is going to be treated the same way (Bernick). No matter what their excuse was at the time it does not matter they will get the same sentence as everyone else who committed that same crime. It seems that the American people agree with this approach to dealing with offenders. “Middle class gives off as it were a great shout: ‘we don’t care who those people are, and what excuses they give, or what their backgrounds are. We want them caught convicted, and put away (Friedman 306). This shows that the American people want every criminal to be treated equally given the same punishment regardless of their background or excuse at the time. There …show more content…
On the contrary, there are many who believe that the system that is in place now is what the United States should continue to use, because they think that it is working. Those who are against the reform of the corrections system think that incarceration is doing the job of protecting society from deviants that break that law and disrupt the peaceful balance of society. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws eliminate the biases of human nature, by setting guidelines for the sentencing process. The case for stricter sentencing laws is that they are beneficial to deter crime. Reformers argue that the system is incarceration non-violent drug offenders that pose no threat to society. The rebuttal is that only a small portion of people in prison for drug offenses are there on only those charges, many are there for other crimes as well. The corrections system ensures the safety and health of inmates, despite the arguments from reformers that these requirements are not met. Prison not only serves as a detention facility for criminals it also can boost the economy of a small town. In conclusion there are many facts to support that prisons have their place in
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